The colourful programme for this concert offers several exciting chamber works, with the first part given over to works from the Viennese Classical period that are seldom heard in the concert hall. Opening the evening is a quartet for flute and strings written by Johann Matthias Sperger, a double bassist who composed more than 40 symphonies in the shadow of the eminent trio of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The 20-year-old Mozart was still living in Salzburg when he crafted his Divertimento for oboe, two bassoons and horn, and Beethoven was only a few years older when he composed his duo for clarinet and bassoon - a work yet to receive an official opus number.
The second part of the programme starts with another rarity: Franz Hasenoehrl's playfully witty arrangement of Richard Strauss's already humorous and gag-filled symphonic poem. Active until his death at the age of 104, Elliott Carter wrote his five-minute composition as a trio for flute, clarinet and marimba in 1994. The concert closes with a 1924 chamber work by Prokofiev, which incorporates entertaining music from his ballet Trapèze and also combines an unusual combination of string and wind instruments.

Presented by: Hungarian National Philharmonic